Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

At least he doesn’t even pretend to be “committed to customers.” Yesterday, I got what I thought would be my very last bill from MBNA America. I’ve been going around and around with them for well over a year regarding interest rates and mistakes. I finally gave up, paid up and decided to call it a day (even though they still owe me about $300.) So, I open up the last bill - and it shows a balance of $0.63 (that’s right - 63 pennies)…and a finance charge of $18.91. Just want to get that very last drop out of the turnip, don’t you, Mr. Hammonds? (Of course, the poor guy will only make about $125M if the Bank of America deal goes through.)

From MBNA’s precepts: “MBNA is a Company of People Committed to: Treating the Customer as we expect to be treated…”putting the Customer first every day and meaning it.” Hmmm…either MBNA and its employees have a serious self-esteem problem…or this is yet another case of hypocritical marketing speak, so beloved by the smash and grab marketers.

Service - not marketing speak - creates customer loyalty.